Online Marketing Tips – 5 Mistakes To Avoid When Building An Instant Authority Website
“Everybody googles and your website is your first impression online” - Ana Rosenberg
If you are a service professional, an author, coach, speaker, trainer or consultant, just having a website won’t cut it anymore. You need an Instant Authority Website.
What exactly is an Authority Website and why should you care?
I’m glad you asked. An Authority Site instantly positions you as an expert in your field.
An Authority Website:
- creates immediate trust and attracts the visitor’s attention;
- it gives you more leverage to help your visitors and to impact them (we are all more likely to listen to an Authority);
- it engages your visitors and helps build a relationship with them; AND
- it makes you more money.
MISTAKE # 1 – It Is Not About You. It Is About Them
We are NOT talking about a static “vanity” website that looks like a brochure all about you, your certifications, how great you are. This is what a lot of service professionals do online and it actually hurts them. (BTW, your visitors don’t care!!!).
I know you: you are awesome at what you do and love helping people and because I want to help you build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, I’m going to be very straight forward. The way I always am with my friends. The first thing you will need to do if you want to position yourself as the go-to expert and be able to help and impact more people is to get over yourself. Forget the certifications, who you learned from, the courses you attended… Don’t lead your marketing with that.
Something very funny happens when somebody lands on your site: if you are a doctor, for instance, they already assume that you attended university, passed your exams and are fully qualified to do what you do.This is applicable to other experts. If you are a coach, you won’t lead with your certification. Your visitor already assumes that you know your stuff.
“Positioning yourself as the Authority in your field is the way to make your competition disappear. There isn’t any competition for an Authority”- Ana Rosenberg
Remember that everybody googles. It is your chance to make an awesome first impression. It might very well be the first place your visitor lands and hears about you for the first time.And it is not about “vanity” and “name recognition”.
Your Authority Website is also your best sales force: it works for you 24/7, building your list, engaging
your visitors and converting visitors into buyers.
If it is not a “vanity” site, what shall you do instead?
An Authority knows the pains and irrational desires of their visitor and leads with that. If you can explain and articulate my deepest fears, needs and desires better than I can and you can show me the solution, you are unconsciously positioned as an INSTANT expert.
HOT TIP: Start with the end result or transformation your clients want and show them how to get that.
MISTAKE # 2 – Too Cute, Too Vague, Too Ambiguous
One of the biggest mistakes coaches, authors, speakers, trainers and consultants make is to be too vague or ambiguous in their communication. They talk about “empowerment”, “getting unstuck”, “transitions”. These are not end results. In other words, your visitor doesn’t get 99% of the time what you are talking about and why they should stay and go on reading. End results are things like losing weight, getting a partner, growing a business and making money… See what I mean?
Let’s go back to the definition of marketing and why I think marketing rocks. I define marketing as the clear communication of the value of your offer. That clear communication of value is almost magical: it attracts the right people ready to invest in working with you and repels the wrong people, which saves you a lot of time, energy and money. Isn’t that awesome?
MISTAKE # 3 – Not Letting The Visitor Know They Are In The Right Place
You have less than 3 seconds to show your visitor that they are in the right place. How are you going to do that?
Your visitor should be able to answer these questions at a glance:
- What is it about?
- Am I in the right place?
- What is in it for me if I stay and go on reading?
MISTAKE # 4 – Talking Too Much About Your Process or Methodology
Let’s face it. We love what we do and we are in love with the process or methodology we use. It took us time to master it and we know it can give people amazing results.
So what do we do? We start telling everybody (including our website visitors) all about this wonderful process.
Your visitor is not here because of your process or methodology. They are here because they are looking for a solution to their urgent problems. In many cases, they haven’t even heard about whatever you do.
Example: If you are an NLP practitioner, don’t lead with NLP and how great it is. Lead with “here is the solution to the biggest problem you have right now”.
I am in love with direct response marketing and I think it is the very best thing on this planet. However, if you go to my website you won’t find anything about direct response marketing in the header, or the home page or even in the About Page. The website is all about helping conscious entrepreneurs and service professionals build a business and make money doing what they love. See the difference?
Mistake # 5 – Not Having An Online Marketing Strategy For Your Website
You need to know what the main purpose of your website is. If you ask me, for service professionals the main purpose of your website should be growing your list of subscribers.
And here is why…
Your visitor might come to your website for the first time in research mode, i.e. they are not ready to buy yet, they are just “looking”. If you offer them something valuable in exchange for their email address, you can keep in touch with them, build a relationship with them and you position yourself as an immediate expert in their mind.
The sad truth is that if you don’t get their email address, they might never find their way back to your website ever again and all your hard work to drive visitors to your site is wasted.
Today we have covered 5 big mistakes to avoid if you want Instant Authority. You can go an implement what you learned RIGHT NOW!
Stay tuned because in our next blog post you are going to discover exactly what tools and strategies to use when creating your Instant Authority Site as well as how to take control over your website.
Meanwhile keep building a business to be proud of!
Ana
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